Today and onehalf twist. Where does the former president released dan on abortion what he said, and what voters could make of it. Keeping them honest. Also tonight that vulgar post he spread online about sex acts. Kamala harris and hillary clinton, because running mate was asked about it and how he tried to explain it is causing fresh up. Later. All we're learning about the tragic killing of a star hockey player and his brother by a suspected drunk driver that very night for their sister's wedding good evening. Jim sciutto here sitting in for anderson, the former president will be speaking tonight at the moms for liberty convention here in washington that is the rightwing group which got its start pushing to restrict sex education topics in schools and banning books on gender and sexuality from school libraries. We begin though, keeping them honest with the not the former president has just tied himself into over abortion for the first time either, and potentially not without electoral consequences. It involves florida, one of ten states with abortion measures on the ballot this november, donald trump is, you may remember a florida voter yesterday, he was asked about the state's proposed ballot measure on a constitutional amendment protecting the right to abortion until fetal viability, roughly 24 weeks. The amendment would make the state's new sixweek ban unconstitutional. And here's what florida voter donald trump said about how he'd vote i think the six week is too short it has to be more time. And so that's an i've told them that i want more weeks. You'll vote in favor of the amendment i'm voting that i am going to be voting that we need more than six weeks all right. Just to underscore, there are only two choices on that amendment, yes or no? no means the sixweek ban could remain. Yes. Would enshrine the right to an abortion up to 20 for some weeks, 24 is greater than six. You might notice and mr. Trump said, quote, i am going to be voting that we need more than six weeks. Meaning at least by the logic of it, he would vote. Yes given that choice, a short time later, a spokesperson tried to say that is not what he said, quoting her now president trump has not yet said how he will vote on the ballot initiative in florida. He simply reiterated that he believes six weeks is too short. Well, today, however, he made it explicit. He is voting no are you voting yes or no on amendment four in florida. So i think six weeks you need more time. Six weeks. I've disagreed with that right from the early primaries when i heard about it, i disagreed with it. At the same time, the democrats are radical because the nine months is just a ridiculous situation that we're, you can do an abortion and the ninth month and some of the states like minnesota and other states have it where you can actually execute the baby after birth. And all of that stuff is unacceptable. So i'll be voting no for that reason a lot of wood said there is frankly not true, not for the first time. There was no such thing as the state sanctioned execution of newborns. And according to the kaiser family foundation, citing cdc data, only the 1% of all abortions happen after 21 weeks of pregnancy beyond that, though, just a day after suggesting he would vote? yes on the measure because in his words six weeks is too short. He now says quite clearly, he's voting no, as if as if it's somehow squares that circle, he's using logic glee unconnected and factually nonexistent democratic policies to justify that flipflop. And that decision. What to make of this is for the voters to decide what is clear. However, just as a matter of fact, is that donald trump has been all over the map on abortion over the years i'm very prochoice. I hate the concept of abortion. I hate it. I hate everything it stands for. I cringe when i listen to people debating the subject but you still i just believe in choice that's donald trump in 1999 and 2011 when he was considering a run for the president he told the conservative action conference, quote, i am prolife by 2016 when he was actually running, he was actually talking about penalties for women who do have abortions the answer is that there has to be some form of punishment for the woman yeah. He later backed away from that, but then appointed three justices to the supreme court who became part of the 63 majority, which of course overturned roe v. Wade, which brought us all to this point and left him right smack between a conservative base. He cannot abandon and the moderate women voters, he potentially cannot win without, which could be why, even as he advocates for and works toward sharply socially conservative measures, he tries to sell it as something else saying, as you heard, he's really against us sixweek abortion ban, even while pledging his vote to preserve that ban. Or in the case of overturning roe portraying it as broadly popular, even across party lines they wanted to get rid of roe v. Wade, and that's democrats republicans, and independents and everybody. Liberals, conservatives, everybody wanted it back in the states. And i did that keeping them honest, that's just flatout, false according to a pew research poll, 57% of americans disapproved of the court's decision. And in pew polling dating back to 2003, anywhere from 760 to 70% were broadly opposed to overturning roe. So no returning abortion to the states so it's neither wanted then according to the polling nor especially welcomed. Now, contrary to what the former president says, and that's not all he is saying. He also spoke to fox about whether he would veto a national abortion ban if it came to his desk as president. Just a few days ago, his running mate said, he thought trump would i think be very clear he would not support it i mean yeah. I mean, if you're not supporting it as a present united states, you find it really have that was his running mate on sunday. Here is the former president himself. Today saying somehow it'll never even come up i'm not going to have to think about it because it's working out so well right now to states are doing it. It's a state's issue you'll note he didn't say he would veto it. And as you just heard him say it's working out so well right now, more now on all this from cnn's steve contorno, who was at the trump event here in washington steve, i wonder how is his campaign attempting to explain his flipflop just in the last 24 hours on what is a key campaign issue well, jim trump is strange to navigate this issue all throughout this race. Set for a time, he wouldn't comment on it at all and then he said that this was a settled issue because it belongs in the states. He has both tried to take credit for the fall of roe v. Wade and say that he has not connected to the political fallout. The problem though is what's happened in florida is his home state and it was over eventually i'm going to drag him into the vein. What we saw for him over the last 24 hours with his comments yesterday saying that suggesting that he might support referendum here, the blowback from it was incredibly significant from the antiabortion committed. We saw many of them say that they might not vote for trump, that they wouldn't knocked doors for him that they might sit this election out. And that is where a lot of this rush for him to clarify his stance is coming from jim not quite clarifying it. Let's be frank house, the harris campaign reacting why is it convention? she's been very critical of donald trump's stance and his waffling on this issue over the past six months. In fact, she put out her own statement tonight. I'd like to read you a part of that. She said, quote, i trust women to make their own healthcare decisions and believe the government should never come between a woman and her doctor. When i'm president and congress passes a bill to restore reproductive freedom, i will proudly signed it into law. The choice in this election is clear and i'll point out that her campaign also started. It started a bus tour where they're going to be talking about reproductive rights and about 15 stops across the country. And it started started in donald trump's backyard and palm beach, florida steve contorno there. Thanks so much joining us now is 2016 trump campaign deputy communications director bryan lanza also, rachel palermo, former deputy communications director for vice president harris, plus cnn, political commentators, bakari sellers and se cupp great to have you all on brian, i have to ask you. We've heard two different things from the candidate in the last 24 hours how do you explain the flipflop? listen, abortion policies is tough and he's clearly trying to navigate in these findings to be more challenging than he thought it would be in 2016 when he when he released his federalists list of supreme court justices, he really believed in, he still believes to this day that returning it to the states was the best option. And that's what he did and he's proud of and that's why he continues to stand by it but, i think you hear in the 800m, haven't developed, what happens when it has actually returned to the states. He's stayed out of the conversation for most states and he's on forced into this part of the conversation because of florida. But i think if we're up to him, he'd want the states to make these individual decisions and he wouldn't want to talk about it again, but abortion politics is there's something that never stays in the background. It always creeps itself up. It's not a top five issue yet. But the more and more we talk about it, the more and more people start to pay attention i mean, the trouble with abortion rights, you have to have an explicit and quite clear position on it. You can't flipflop or try to snow people on what the actual answer is. Se are you surprised the former president dangerous mine in effect, and is going to vote to keep that sixweek ban that just 24 hours ago, he said was too short what's really astounding is that donald trump has had eight years to figure out an abortion policy, including specifics and i have written a version of this column, i think for the past eight years, over and over and over again, that trump simply doesn't know or care. What is abortion policy is. The flip flops and the absolute aversion to laying out specifics what he would want and when how a friendly it's driving prolife conservatives crazy and i think what it's leading a lot of other women, moderates and independent women, women in swing states to believe, is that you just can't trust what he's saying. They don't believe him when he says, i'm going to be great for women's reproductive rights not going to vote for an abortion ban. They don't believe him. So there's really no excuse for someone this far into his political career who's already been president of the united states, to not be able to articulate his position on what is definitely a top five issue for a lot of voters. Yeah. Rachel i'm curious. Brian says it's not a top five issue, as he says, it is what's the campaign's view and how does it plan to respond to this? this is a really important issue to the campaign because it's an important issue to voters, people care about this issue. The majority of americans believe that a woman should be able to make decisions about what to do with her own body. And that's why the vice president has been such a forceful advocate and voice on this issue ever since roe v. Wade was overturned two years ago, which builds on it the fact that she's fought for the health safety and wellbeing of women throughout her entire career. And in terms of florida's ban, in particular six weeks is extreme in the vice president's statement that she released tonight, she noted that six weeks is before most women know that they are pregnant. That means that this is an allout ban. It's extreme. We've seen how these bands have been impacting women's health all over the country. We've seen women miscarrying and parking lots and it's really devastating. And so the campaign is going to focus on this because the american people care about it bakari it seems clear here that trump is attempting to muddy the waters here on his position to try to convince conservative voters or for prolife voters that he is with them while leaving some daylight potentially or attempting to convince that pro choice voters that maybe he could be with them to some degree. I just wonder, is that a workable political strategy on an issue that is, but let's be frank. It's not taxes, right? it's not trade policy. This is an issue that women rightfully see has a question of, are a woman's decision yes. So there are a few things this is not a complicated issue and this is, this is not a an issue that is muddy at all. In fact there's one more layer to this. This is also not just an issue that women voters care about in this country. This is an issue that not only women but men care about as well as governor walz has actually talked about donald trump has made his position extremely clear. Not only does he want to penalize women for having abortions but yes, he wants to go to extreme measures before women even know if they're pregnant or not. Six weeks like florida so he can take credit for putting three justices on the united states supreme court, which overturned roe v. Wade. He cheers for that. He says that this is one of the prize i'm prize achievements he made when he was president of the united states. This is something that he takes pride in. So now you can't come back and attempt to flip flop. There are families around the country that simply want the reproductive freedom. They want that justice. And the fact of the matter is quite simple. You cannot trust donald trump these choices, and there's something else that we haven't talked about that i think needs a little conversation. Donald trump is old. Donald trump is 78yearsold and so when you see him actually flipflop or say something yesterday and change today one of the reasons you can't trust them and this is not ageism by any stretch. But the question is, does he have the capacity? to be president of the united states? that answer is no. He's a vastly diminished person than what he was in 2016. And so the campaign can try to build this infrastructure around him. But donald trump doesn't know what he's saying from one day to another. And women and men like do not want donald trump or mike johnson or chuck grassley those decisions for what they do with their bodies. That is not a choice for donald trump because he's apparently in that into diminished to make it. Ryan, i want to give you a chance to respond to that because as you know, when biden was the candidate, you would often often hear from trump supporters and others on his campaign if he wasn't clear on a puzzle position or an answer to the question that that got back to his capacity. So how do you answer that? is this just a question of trump finding it hard to navigate an issue, or is there already issue? i give credit to mccarthy for sticking to this issue he's trying to make it an issue. It's clearly not an issue. Mean if you do the comparison between trump and biden, trump wasn't falling up the stairs. It wasn't falling down the stairs. He could find the door. So it's not it's not an issue of diminished capacity by any measurement. It what it is, it's an issue of a very complicated issue with a man who has switched his position when he first ran for president, and he's learning just how complicated it gets the further further you get involved. And that's where we are he's trying to figure out a solution for it he got backed into a corner. He made a misstatement yesterday that backed him in the corner that you saw his remarks today. I mean, it is a complicated issue for him to deal with and he's he's probably doing the best you but as you can see, it's it doesn't appease everybody he is running for president though. Se cupp and the nature of running for the most powerful office in the land is taking stances on difficult issues which i should note, the trump campaign is demanding of kamala harris and rightfully so on, on issues such as fracking, et cetera. Why can't that republican candidate for president who wants to be president? again, make a very clear statement on where he stands on this and stick to it yeah this is too complicated for him eight years into his public career, he probably shouldn't be president and i would say i would say the same to kamala harris. She can't figure out a way to articulate a border policy. I'd say the same thing. You've been in public office a long time, get a message together and tell us what you would do. You can be he fair. But it's not asking a lot for a guy who's already been president and wants to be president again, to tell us exactly what he would do. The crazy thing is there's actual policies. He could go after with harris and walz. He's right. That in minnesota, there is no week restrictions on abortion, but of course he goes farther than that cartoonishly, farther where he's basically lying about the left, which he doesn't have to do. But he can't just stick to the facts. He has to obvious gate and distract because he doesn't have a policy. He hasn't figured this out. And whether it's because he's old, are inept or he just doesn't fundamentally care about this issue, voters deserve to know where he stands, which there are some watching. Kamala harris's interview last night on cnn, who noticed that reproductive rights were not as central to her message, at least in that interview as in other public appearances the convention, et cetera, i wonder, does this this last 24 hours? perhaps change harris's in the campaign's approach i think that reproductive rights is something that the vice president harris has focused on before she was running. And now, as she been running and it's something that's very much central to her message. She frames this as this issue of fundamental freedoms, this ability to have the freedom to choose what to do with your own body last night chance or questions on a range of issues from the economy to the border to what her vision is for this country to that fateful call when president biden told her that he wasn't running for reelection and the american people really got to see a different side of her and they got to see more about her policies and her vision, which was great. But when it comes to abortion russian rights, the vice president is undeterred and she's going to keep focusing on this because she cares about the issues. So fundamentally, everybody, stan stand with me because i want to pick up the conversation shortly right now though. A closer look at jd vance's evolving position himself on abortion over the years, cnn's randi kaye has that in 2021 when j. D. Vance was running to become a republican senator of ohio, he defended the texas abortion law when asked during an interview whether abortion laws should also include exceptions for rape and incest vance said this two wrongs don't make a right. It's not whether a woman should be forced to bring a child to term. It's whether a child should be allowed to live even though the circumstances of that child's birth are somehow inconvenient or a problem to the society of those comments sparking criticism from supporters of abortion rights. That same year, vance company harris abortion to slavery. There's something comparable between abortion and slavery in that the people who obviously suffer the most are those subjected to it. I think it has this morally distorting effect on the entire society. Only answer the following year in 2022 i am prolife. I've always been prolife during a debate and the ohio senate race vance said this about exceptions i have always believed in reasonable exceptions in that same 2020 to debate vance also said he was totally fine with establishing some minimum national standard to restrict abortion at a certain number of weeks. How many